School governor steps aside (From Bucks Free Press)

School governor steps aside

9:38am Friday 27th April 2007 in

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AN architect says he has stepped aside from his role as a school governor to draw up plans for a housing development adjacent to the school.

Chris Harvey, company director of HAP Chartered Architects, in Amersham Hill, High Wycombe is working with developer Henry Homes on an application to build 13 homes near Hamilton Primary School. Mr Harvey, a governor at the Priory Avenue school, whose daughters were both pupils there, says there is no conflict of interest between his two roles because he has temporarily stepped down from the board.

His role as architect was raised through a comment on the Free Press website.

But he told the Free Press the land agents approached him to come up with a feasible way of developing the 0.48 hectare plot and he suggested an entrance to the site through the school.

Mr Harvey, who has been a governor at the school for 12 years, took the idea to Hamilton. The school agreed to talk to the agents about the scheme and once they settled on a decision, a developer was found.

But when Henry Homes, one of Mr Harvey's clients, came forward to take on the project he left his governing role on a back burner.

He said: "I can't have an interest in two camps. Right from the moment that might be any possibility I stepped down and said I have to declare an interest."

The school has agreed to a land swap with Henry Homes. They will lose some of the playground but will gain extra land and a "significant" sum of money.